The core of Salt Lake City’s nightlife scene is set to get a big boost early in the new year.
One of the businesses severely damaged in a large August fire that tore through a historic strip of bars and restaurants on Main Street is on track to open in mid-January.
“White Horse is coming along great,” said Jason LeCates, managing partner of Bourbon Group, which owns the restaurant. “It wasn’t nearly as damaged. Most of the damage there was a roof collapse. At the front portion of the building the roof collapsed because of the weight of the water from the firefight, and so it never actually caught on fire. Everything in it was still destroyed, but the structure is pretty much still intact.”
White Horse is one of five establishments — the others are Whiskey Street, London Belle, Los Tapatios Taco Grill and Eva — that’ve been shut down for an extended period of time in the aftermath of the fire.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) A sign on the door of White Horse on Main Street in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.
The block is the historic heart of nightlife in Salt Lake City, dating all the way back to the time of Brigham Young and the nascent mining industry. The businesses and their employees have been the focus of multiple post-fire fundraising and loan programs as City Hall and the Downtown Alliance, a coalition of businesses in the urban core, have tried to prop up the companies through the rebuilding process.
LeCates’ restaurant group also owns Whiskey Street. That establishment, he said, likely won’t open again until at least late fall of next year. After waiting for the investigation of the fire’s origin to play out, management has now started redesigning the bar, which will only retain its historic brick walls and facade.
Currently, the walls of the bar are held up by wooden trusses so they don’t collapse. The building will need a lot of work, LeCates said, including seismic upgrades. The company will have to get new construction permits for the rebuild, too.
“It’s going to be a minute,” he said.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) A man walks by the boarded-up Whiskey Street bar on Main Street in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.
Eva, the Mediterranean restaurant farther up the block, “should return in the next few months,” Gastronomic Salt Lake City writer Stuart Melling said in a recent story.
Reopening the businesses on Main Street has been the focus of two programs approved by the Salt Lake City Council members as city leaders look to keep downtown vibrant and active.
The first was a no-interest loan program targeted toward the establishments’ owners to help them cover operating expenses while they couldn’t serve customers. Businesses directly affected by the fire could get up to $100,000 in funding. The full pot totaled $600,000.
In the cases of White Horse and Whiskey Street, LeCates said the group had yet to see those funds or any insurance payouts. The company’s owners have kicked in significant money to cover reopening costs.
Bourbon Group, however, has finished up the required paperwork necessary to access the loans and hopes the funding will come in this week, LeCates said. The funds will help cover costs like rent, payroll and employee health insurance.
Council members, acting as the city’s Community Reinvestment Agency, also signed off on a $5 million loan program meant to help property owners along Main Street reconstruct the buildings quicker. Each property could receive up to $1 million.
“I’m open to any solutions that get these businesses back on Main Street, functioning, as quickly as possible,” council member Victoria Petro said before voting to approve the program. “... The priority has to be getting these businesses back so that the people who work there can return to their security.”
The City Council also debated providing rental assistance to employees of the Main Street businesses who lost more than a quarter of their income due to the fire. In early September, however, they opted to defer action on that idea. Council members, at the time, wanted more information about how city staff would use a tool like that in the future and for what purposes before they signed off on it.
“I’m looking forward in the next week or so to [getting] some clarification on the policy umbrella to make sure that we are setting the city [up] for success,” council member Alejandro Puy said at a September meeting. “Also, ensuring that the community understands how we are going to continue to deploy these tools and protecting the interests of the city as a whole.”
The City Council hasn’t received a briefing on the proposal since then.
Restaurant industry leaders, philanthropists and others stepped up to help the employees in the aftermath of the fire, though, via a fundraiser organized by the Downtown Alliance.
“This tragedy underscored the resilience and generosity of Salt Lake City,” said Dee Brewer, executive director of the alliance, in a September news release. “Neighbors supported neighbors and turned heartbreak into hope. While the fund has now closed, our work isn’t done — we remain committed to helping property owners and business owners rebuild this block and restore its vibrancy.”
In total, the organization distributed $494,000 to about 160 employees of the affected businesses. More than 1,600 people contributed to the fund. The alliance and the Utah Restaurant Association also hosted a job fair and connected those affected to free therapy services and meal vouchers.